3:30     Frances Moore Lappé

A democracy advocate and world food and hunger expert who has authored or co-authored 16 books.  She is the co-founder of three organizations, including Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy and, more recently, the Small Planet Institute, which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappé. In 1987 she received the Right Livelihood Aware (aka, the “Alternative Nobel.”) 

Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, has sold three million copies and is considered “the blueprint for eating with a small carbon footprint since long before the term was coined” by JM Hirsch of Associated Press; and the Women’s National Book Association chose it among 75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World. In 2008, Gourmet Magazine named Lappé among 25 people (including Thomas Jefferson, Upton Sinclair and Julia Child) whose work has changed the way America eats.

Her most recent book is Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad, awarded the Nautilus Gold/“Best in Small Press” award. In June 2008, that book and Diet for a Small Planet were designated as must-reads for the next U.S. president (by Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan, respectively) in The New York Times Sunday Book Review Other recent books include Hope’s Edge, written with Anna Lappé, about democratic social movements worldwide, as well as You have the Power and Democracy’s Edge.

Lappé has received 17 honorary doctorates from distinguished institutions including The University of Michigan and was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000-2001. She received the 2008 James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award for her lifelong impact on the way people all over the world think about food, nutrition, and agriculture (JBF’s introduction to Frances and her work).

Together, Lappé and her daughter Anna Lappé lead the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute, a collaborative network for research and popular education to bring democracy to life. With her daughter, she is also co-founder of the Small Planet Fund, channeling resources to democratic social movements worldwide.

In 2006 she was chosen as a founding councilor of the Hamburg-based World Future Council. She is also a member of the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture and the National Advisory Board of the Union of Concerned Scientists. She serves as an advisor to the Calgary Centre for Global Community and on the board of David Korten’s People-Centered Development Forum. Lappé is a contributing editor to Yes! Magazine.

The Washington Post says: “Some of the twentieth century’s most vibrant activist thinkers have been American women – Margaret Mead, Jeanette Rankin, Barbara Ward, Dorothy Day – who took it upon themselves to pump life into basic truths. Frances Moore Lappé is among them.”

ADVISORY POSTS AND BOARDS:
- Frances is a founding councilor of the World Future Council, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, and London
- Frances serves on the following advisory boards: Union of Concerned Scientists, Value [the] Meal (Corporate Accountability International), Simple Living, Chez Panisse Foundation, Earth Corps, and the People-Centered Development Foundation

TEACHING AND SCHOLARLY POSITIONS
- From 2000-2001 Frances was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- In 2003, Frances taught with Dr. Vandana Shiva in Dehra Dun, India, about the roots of world hunger, sponsored by the Navdanya researching and agricultural demonstration center.
- In 2004, Frances taught a course on Living Democracy at Schumacher College in England.
- In 2006 and 2008, Frances was a visiting professor at Suffolk University, Boston.

To learn more about Frances Moore Lappé and Small Planet Institute, please click on her name above.

3:30     Lama Tsomo

Lama Tsomo will be co-speaking with friend Frances Moore Lappé.  Lama Tsomo, a long time Buddhist practitioner, has studied and completed intensive retreats under Gochen Tulku Rinpoche’s close instruction and supervision and has received many empowerments and teachings from him as well, including the course of study and practice of the traditional Three-Year Retreat.  Lama Tsomo also holds a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology.  Her direct, clear, often humorous approach to teaching includes many stories and examples from modern life. Tsomo has said, “The Tibetans have been using a system developed over thousands of years, with many documented successes. They have proven, powerful methods of transformation. The problem for the Western mind is to be able to successfully use these methods to attain the same results.” Since she is quite learned in both Eastern and Western methods, Tsomo hopes to act as a bridge for interested practitioners.

 

4:30     Ani Tsering Wangmo           

Tsering has just released her seventh album, Medicine Tree. Listen to some full tracks from the Medicine Tree CD by visiting her website, where you can also purchase her CDs, click on her name above.  She is, as some visitors to this site will know, a singing nun, a singing Tibetan Buddhist nun who wraps a gently resonant tone around traditional Buddhist chants and themes.  She also gives away all the profits from her CD sales.

All the profits made by the sale of Tsering's seven CDs are donated to three causes: a medical clinic in Tibet, the Yulokö Jetsun Ling Nunnery in Nepal, and the Ewam Garden of 1000 Buddhas.

5:00     Gochen Tulku (Sang-ngag) Rinpoche

Gochen Tulku, an outstanding meditation master and Buddhist scholar, is a lineage holder of the most profound and widely practiced Tibetan Buddhist lineages in Tibet. He has studied and trained extensively under Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Tulku Orgyen Chemchok, among other great lamas.  He has established monasteries, nunneries and dharma centers throughout Asia and the United States and heads the Ewam centers in the US as well as Asia.  It was a through a dream he had years ago that he envisioned the Buddha Garden, please go to the Buddha Garden page for more info. Rinpoche’s primary residence is in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  For a complete bio on Rinpoche, please click here.

 

 

6:00     Joan Zen

Whether playing as an acoustic duo at a private party or cafe with her husband and best friend Jason Hicks, or performing with her saxophone driven, 4-piece funky-soul band, Joan Zen consistently provides excellent entertainment every night.  She can be heard playing her originals to a packed Brewery crowd, and can also be seen playing groovy, recognizable cover tunes at weddings and festivals to keep a group of fans dancing all night long.  Around the Bitterroot Valley in Montana, it would not be a surprise to see Grammy award winner Huey Lewis sitting in with her! For more information about Joan Zen and to visit the Joan Zen website, please click the name above.